54,200 Jobs Created in Houston Economic Rebound, New Report Says

HOUSTON – The Houston area economy added 54,200 new jobs over the last year, one of the strongest job growth reports since job growth tailed off in 2015, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. The report covered a 12-month period ending July 31, 2017.

Houston’s unemployment rate in July was 4.9 percent, down from 5.3 percent in June and 5.8 percent in July 2016.

The jobs report adds to a number of headlines indicating a strong economic rebound in Houston since severe decline in oil prices slammed the Houston economy.

Although, the Houston office market is still working through a oil-inspired glut of office space, Houston’s residential market is on-fire.

Houston ranks number two in the nation in single-family home starts, behind Dallas, according to Metrostudy.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area had 31,049 single-family home starts for the 12-month period ending June 30. Houston was second with 27,114 starts.

Houston’s new home construction is not the only residential sector to perform well. The existing home market is hot. This year is expected be a record-setter for existing home sales in the Energy Capital of the World.

So far this year, 46,580 single-family homes have been sold in the Houston area, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. That’s 6.8 percent over the year-to-date sales of 2016, which was the strongest year ever for Houston home sales.

So with the spring selling season completed, it looks like a certainty that 2017 will easily shatter all previous records.

More than 8,000 existing homes were sold in both May and June, the first two times that Houston’s monthly sales totals have ever broken the 8,000-sales mark.

RNR

Texas-based RealtyNewsReport.com covers regional and national news of significant trends and transactions in commercial and residential real estate. The publication was founded by Ralph Bivins, an award-winning journalist with extensive experience in print, broadcast and online media. Bivins recently received a number of awards in the 66th Annual National Association of Real Estate Editors Journalism Competition.